The Changes No One Wants to See
by maveisher
Summary: Nico and Percy have been friends for a while, and Percy doesn't like the way Nico has grown out of everything he was, all the childishness he used to hate so much. He misses that side of him. I'm really bad at summaries sorry


"Hey! Wait up!" Nico called from behind Percy, who honestly didn't want to wait up for the little undetermined twelve-year-old. The whole point of walking away so quickly was so that Nico wouldn't be able to _catch_ up. Percy just really wanted some time alone-no that was a lie. He just wanted some time away from the kid. Yeah, sure he felt bad for him and all, his only family-his sister, Bianca- had just ditched him to join the hunters of Artemis for all of eternity. Then of course there was the fact that he had just found out one of his parents was an Olympian God, but honestly, Nico didn't seem all that freaked out. If anything he was totally psyched, and Percy just wasn't sure how to deal with that. Sure, everyone here had learned to love this place over time, but nobody loved it the second they arrived. They were all just too depressed about everything that had happened to have _gotten_ them here to.

"Slow-down." He said, coming into a slower pace next to the son of Poseidon. "Man, you walk fast. Do you think that came from all those awesome years punching monsters in the face, or were you just always this speedy?" Nico smiled from ear to ear as he talked to Percy, his mouth just kind of rambling on in an almost nervous kind of way-like he knew what he wanted to say, his brain just wouldn't have it.

"I'm pretty sure the only thing that kills monsters is Celestial Bronze, not fists." Percy said, choosing to only correct him instead of answering his strange question.

"Oh… you would think there would be more godly metal out there, you know? Just one type doesn't seem very fair. What if you run out and all the monsters get you?" Nico actually sounded a bit frightened as he asked his eyes unfocused in the distance.

Percy snorted, "We're not going to run out, and even if we did, we would still have the weapons we had already made from it. As for the other material? I don't know. I never really bothered to ask. I would assume it's the only one though, because if there were more, why wouldn't we be using those too, you know?" It was never really anything he had given thought to, because he figured someone would've told him by now (cough, cough Annabeth) if there were more than one type of metal that could kill a monster. He also figured the Hephaestus cabin would've been making the most out of it unless-

"Unless it's too dangerous for us to handle." Nico finished Percy's train of thought, suddenly wondering if the kid could read minds and who's godly child that would make him if he could.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." Percy responded suspiciously, realizing that if he could read his thoughts, he would know how annoying he thought he was being. The kid was bad, but not that bad.

"Anyway," Nico started, suddenly back to his old peppy self, "I'm going to go ask the satyrs if they have a band going or if the pipes are really only just for doing work." He had a spark in his eye, an excited curiosity that Percy suddenly wished he saw more around here. Everyone at this camp was so dead, their spirits so broken, that it would be nice seeing a little spark of life hopping around-if only for a little while.

It had been four years since then, and the spark had disappeared far too quickly. Only a few weeks in it had seeped out of him, right before Percy's eyes, taking every sense of the little boy with it. It was replaced with a cold glint that had hardened his heart and mind, turning Nico into something Percy would've never thought he was capable of being. As soon as he had discovered Hades was his father, it was like Nico suddenly thought he had to fit that mold. He needed to be the cold, distant, sarcastic teenager that could talk to the dead with a little fast food and a book; otherwise he just wouldn't be right, his father just wouldn't be happy. His father was the God of the dead; Percy was pretty sure whatever Nico did, he wouldn't be happy.

"Hey! Wait up!" he heard Nico demand from behind him. Percy continued walking, not trying at all to hide the fact that he was trying to avoid the kid.

"Slow-down." He sighed and came into pace with Percy, giving him a look of pure distaste. His curly hair fell over his one eye so he could only get the full affect of the look from half of his face, but it was still terrifying. Despite the fact that Percy was four years older than him, and now officially an adult (at least according to the laws of these United States) Nico still scared him a bit. Maybe it was because he knew what Nico had once been, maybe it was because he always carried around the stygian iron knife that could literally suck the life out of _anything_, or maybe it was just because he was the son of the God of the Underworld. "Stop walking so fast, you know I'm just going to catch up with you anyway." He mumbled, absent-mindedly running his finger down the blade strapped to his belt loop.

"How'd you get so fast? Punching all those monsters in the face increase your speed?" Percy asked tauntingly, knowing as soon as he said it, he shouldn't have. Nico was bad, but he wasn't that bad. He didn't need to be reminded of the past any more than he already was. You could tell just by the look he always had on his face that it was already all he could think about-when he would lean grudgingly on the railing to the Hermes front porch, running his fingers over the blade of stygian iron in his hand, his eyebrows furrowed and his moth turned down-you could somehow tell he was thinking about Bianca.

"I'm pretty sure the only thing that kills monster is celestial bronze, not fists you stupid kid." He mocked in a false stiletto voice, holding up his dagger just to emphasize had wrong Percy had been back then. Well alright, if Nico was going to be cruel back, he didn't mind sticking the wound a little harder.

"But what if we run out and all the monsters get us?" Percy said trying to sound frightened, playing it up, but not too much. He didn't feel like getting punched in the face-especially not by somebody with a skull ring on their finger that would've left a nice imprint on his face.

"Shut up, Jackson." Nico growled through his teeth, the blade still in his hand instead of back in its place on his belt.

"What?" Percy started outraged, "But you were just doing it too!" That just wasn't fair. He could understand if Nico had been upset when he first started, but you couldn't decide to play the game and then get mad about it a minute later.

"That's different!" He was yelling now, his face as up in Percy's as it could get without Nico having to stand on his toes. "I was right that time." He whispered the last part, turning his head away from Percy and to the ground.

"What do you mean you were right?" He snorted, still being rather insensitive without realizing, "We never ran out of celestial bronze. There's tons in the-"

"That's not what I meant!" He turned towards him again, tears starting to form in his eyes. Percy's expression widened, his eyes becoming much softer and less apathetic as he saw the tears welling up and falling over. "It didn't save her. No amount of celestial bronze could've saved her. It didn't matter if you ran out of the stupid stuff or not, you lied. The monsters can still get us. With or without it, they can still get us." He sniffed and rubbed his nose on his aviators jacket, and Percy suddenly saw the little boy he had been four years ago. He was still there, buried under layers of hate and regret. A kid who would rather play with mythomagic cards than the dead, a kid who asked stupid questions and didn't care that they were stupid, a kid who had only lost his sister to an immortal band of hunters, a kid who didn't know he was the son of Hades.

"Oh gods Nico, I'm so sorry." Percy went to comfort him but Nico pushed his arm away, the same hard mask on his face that was usually fixed there.

"Whatever." Any trace of tears had been whipped away in the last second; leaving the only proof he had been crying at all the red rim around his eyes. He fixed his dagger back onto his pants and started to turn in the other direction.

"Anyway, I'm going to go ask the satyrs if they're done with their stupid band practice, I need to ask them about something." And with that he left Percy, standing there wondering where it was that, that little boy had disappeared to, and why the only way to get him back was through pain. 'Someday,' Percy made himself promise, 'I'll make Nico smile again.' And this would be a promise for Nico diAngelo, he refused to break.


End file.
